assignment 4

Reading 4, let's blog some more

Blobs, or irregularly-shaped organic forms (generally complex and computer generated), allow for the formal relation between the homogeneous or general to the heterogeneous or particular. Blobs reconcile the gaps in representation that traditional forms are sometimes unable to alleviate. They “suggest alternative strategies” and provide different, innovative solutions to difficult architectural situations.

Blobs can’t be reduced, each is unique, and they are simultaneously alien to context while being able to be directly and dynamically informed by it. Lynn introduces “blobbiness” by likening them and their forms to the actions of blob-creatures in horror films, by philosophical definition of like surfaces, and by contemporary design techniques.

Blobs are like horror film creatures in the way they behave as a surface. They’re forms behave like liquids with fluid movements, and a sort of surface tension and viscosity. They can also absorb object and interact with their environments in this liquid sense. And finally they appear as matter that is singularly connected but can be infinitely multiplied and distributed.

These fluid entities are often described as “quasi-solid.” These have been developed digitally as isomorphic polysurfaces often called blob models. These are defined in relation to other objects or forces that have fields of influence, which the models react to. They can mutually redefine their respective surfaces based on the quality of influence in a given situation.

Blob construction fights the notion that structures must stand upright as a reaction to human structure, and therefore fights the notion that buildings should automatically stand vertically. This was based on an early belief and ease of design on behalf of architects who were expected to be “simple, crude and upright in their approach” to designing surface and structure. With today’s technology, many architects are investigating alternative solutions Cartesian volumetric spatial identities. Shoei Yoh is one such architect whose recent work exhibits an approach to enclose a diverse set of programs under one roof with innovative techniques. Using blob tectonics, formal repetition is still used, but elaborated upon and made to interact with programmatic forces more creatively.

Work such as Yoh’s masks the distinctions essentially between the Cartesian and blob methods of design through the creation of a new approach that utilizes elements of both, such as “blobular” form and repetitious, Cartesian construction methods. This combination manifests itself as a new unique identity incorporating both, referred to as the blob.

assignment 3

Reading 3

Utilizing rational and nonrational methods, computer generated logics to drive a design forward can be a highly productive for design investigations. Both analogue and digital processes instill an ordering discipline to their approaches, which used in tandem, can produce new design solutions.

The research discussed intends to build on the applications of rational systems and fundamental underpinnings for the evolution of software objects as assistive methods only. Designers use equipment to create their artifacts, such as digital modeling programs and digital printing devices. Digital software “assists” the design process and doesn’t dominate it. The computer doesn’t create autonomous designs but helps in the creation of more complex and unpredictable ones. It does this through the creation of unanticipated data that requires trial and error exploration. This requires designers to manipulate the products of such programs in a way to drive their designs forward. Such manipulation demands a cognitive adaptation on behalf of users to the requirements of program over time.

Different design approaches are discussed, starting with parametric design. This approach refers to a system where values are substituted “for a few parameters in order to generate variation from within a grouping of entities.” It is generation of form within a strict set parameters. To do this, a design program, calibrated on some interpretive and subjective levels, needs to be utilized in the design process. Through its nonrational technique and the rational contributions of the architect, more innovative designs can be achieved. Complex systems allow the designer to act essentially as an editor, applying choices that will shape the future of their designs.

Evolutionary design methods are initiated by the subjective ideas of the designer. These elements are embedded into the program code, which the designer then works interactively with. Morphological approaches, assisted by programs like , are ways of generating form through a seriew of iterations as mentioned. They play on the premise that nonrational combinations have the potential to be explored and implemented as useful solutions.

During the design process, the model goes from an iconic form of concepts and ideas to a symbolic, mathematical one then incorporates the fourth dimension of time. Morphogenesis describes structure as organization, saying that shape and form-producing pressures are embedded in all subsequent states of materiality. These pressures are then tapped and utilized alongside other parameters and variables. Experimental design research as a whole doesn’t necessarily have to produce something immediately useful, the article citing the United States patent office as an example, stating that most inventions aren’t used for their original purposes. At the most extreme can serve useful as a means of exploration and learning for new innovations that can carry over to completely different endeavors.

The next section discusses formal matters and virtuality as a generative process. The Cartesian grid was an early example as a virtual means of describing things abstractly in space according to vertical and horizontal coordinates. This occurred under the assumption that forms existed in preobjectified states and were not measured according to time. Today, new methods involving the dimension of time are being implemented into design. This added dimension is incorporated with numerous iterations to develop accumulating patterns and further design. There are two main perspectives on temporality: time as a concept and as an experience. Conceptually, time has been understood in relation to events, and then quantified as an abstract standalone measurement. In reality, time is the constant flow of events. All objects change over time, and every object can actually be viewed as an event. The author uses an example of a chair in a classroom, which when viewed over the course of a day, would appear to be animated

Scientifically, closed systems produced expected results, and likewise with traditional methods, often designers work in closed systems, parallel to their goals states. Like the relativity and complexity theories, this is where virtuality’s lack of concreteness can be played to an advantage, as it allows for deviation from the rational and expected. Virtuality is actualized in the interactivity between the designer and the programs, allowing for innovative new solutions.

Larry Sass Lecture

Larry Sass is an assistant professor at MIT who focuses on research and the advancement of digital fabrication processes. His main design interest is described as designing and constructing culturally sensitive community based buildings. He is anti-factory in production, advocates a no-paper design environment, and a user of low energy techniques. He effectively puts technique above style for the purposes of his research.

One of his major research questions is determining if participatory design work is possible. Can people without sufficient knowledge and training utilize a medium with which to make design decisions? He seeks to make such interaction possible and feels that such technology will be more prominent in the near future.

Sustainability is amongst his chief interests in design. He feels that a green economy is not possible with old homes. This leads his research to the fabrication of brand new, sustainable designs to the exclusion of the modification of existing buildings to meet more societal responsible requirements.

Error is prefabrication’s greatest weakness and one Sass goes to great lengths to conquer. Error can necessitate additional hand based manufacturing, high energy factory fabrication and delivery, and imprecise, low quality products. As an anti-factory designer who seeks to ideally do without power tools on the job site, Sass relies on digital printing and laser cutting techniques to shape materials almost exclusively. This eliminates an enormous amount of error in communication and shaping by hand. He uses materialization, which he defines as the creation of geometries for manufacturing from CAD data, to make this possible.

His techniques are pretty remarkable. He uses no fasteners and minimal glue in the creation of his buildings, which are held together primarily by friction. Interestingly enough, these buildings are sufficiently stable. Erecting such designs is essentially like the assembly of a three-dimensional puzzle. This requires minimal skill and equipment usage on behalf of the builders, whom Sass drafts amongst his likely inexperienced students who still more than capable of putting together such projects.

Overall, Larry Sass is utilizing thought provoking methods that are beneficial to architectural design as a whole. Though his focus on sustainable, participatory, and ultimately low-cost design seems narrow minded as his products lack similarly thought provoking modern special design, his work is remarkable. He is setting a precedent for other designers to take these techniques and utilize them in addition with what equates to more architecturally interesting endeavors. Give him a break for implementing his techniques with a traditional shotgun house; focusing on his lack of attention towards spatial design is missing the point.

Reading Two: Techniques, Technology, Temporality in Time

The first chapter deals with techniques and technology. It begins describing the feedback loop between technology and culture, where advances in one lead to more in the other. With potential for innovation like never before, architects must sieze opportunity to utilize new digital technologies to drive this process forward. They must participate actively in this feedback loop.

The loop consists of technologies, which lead to technical innovations, which then call for new techniques, which then create feedback. A technology can be defined as the “purely technical or scientific advance,” towards a cultural context with an overall aim at greater efficiency. New technologies result in technical advances, which are new innovations that continue to drive the process forward. The difference between a slow and a fast internet modem would be an example of such an advance. In response, new techniques are necessary, which are defined as skills and strategies that users must adopt to make the most from the technical. These lead to cultural feedback and fuel the process continuously.

The author praises new techniques and their adoption in architectural practice. New techniques incorporate feedback from culture, destabilize traditional practice to be more daring and innovative, are process-driven meaning they lead to new techniques, and are most importantly interdisciplinary, which allows for a greater amount of potential possibilities. Often what were once new techniques are detatched from this feedback loop and eventually become static and routine over time. Even three dimensional modeling programs have merely taken the place of traditional methods with only improved efficiency in mind. The author defines the best digital practices that are ultimately a part of the feedback loop and take more innovative approaches as “technological design practices.” The firm of Charles and Ray Eames serve as a good example. They used technological advances during World War II to produce a series of techniques that built on their past work so that the firm could produce much more innovative work over time. While many of their designs focused on efficiency and mass production, they constantly worked as part of the feedback loop to drive their technology and design process forward.

Contemporary technological practices “must fully engage the conditions and possibilities of the digital age.” Zaha Hadid leads a good example of such a firm. These firms must employ techniques that seek to be a part of the feedback loop that yields “catalytic cultural effects.”


The next chapter deals with temporality and time. Architecture has typically resisted time in consideration of design. The author suggests a different approach, embracing time as an “ally in the production of transformative design.” He argues that technological practices use “temporal techniques” to make innovative designs that engage with the feedback loop. Two theories of temporality are introduced: physical and thermodynamic. Physical temporality suggests that time is “reversible.” This means that there is no change in the fundamental properties of materials over time. From this perspective, time is reduced to a numerical aspect only. The past and future states of materials are symmetrical. This essentially describes stagnation over time. Thermodynamic temporality suggests that processes are “irreversible.” Unlike physical temporality, the past and the future states of materials are assymetrical. This is both quantitative and qualitative, containing a numberical component of time as well as a potential for qualitative change. This is essentially dynamic over time.

The default method for approaching time in architectural practice is similar to the physical theory is generally done subconsciously by ignoring it. Technological practices consider their approaches to designing with time closer to the thermodynamic theory, incorporating it dynamically. They consider themselves and their modes of practice as momentary configurations that are in a constant state of flux.

These firms employ “temporal techniques” which can continue to change objects even as they are built. Traditional practices develop their schemes by clarifying them with the end in mind through top-down approaches. Efficiency is a strong determinate in the design process for such firms. Technological practices see the design process as irreversible. Each development builds on the last and never is the final product known. These firms seek to “generate unanticipated catalytic effects.” Each step takes the design in a new direction.

Other similar techniques are then introduced: temporal, generative, and transformative. Temporal techniques seek to be a combination of traditional and technological practice methods, combining virtual and numerical components. Generative techniques borrow strategies and programs from other industries. Two examples of architects who use these are Greg Lynn of FORM and Lars Spuybroek of NOX. Both use a set of information, like contextual conditions and differences in program, to shape their projects through analyzing the unexpected outcomes that the computers produce. The programs do the drawings and designing, but the firms give them their directions based on trial and error approaches to those products. The transformative techniques change materials irreversibly in time, leading to enexpected results. In this approach, objects have zones of influence that determine the ways they interact and their resulting forms. This approach also reveals no clues of the final product.

Overall, the author feels that static design methods make static buildings. Working dynamically instead allows architects to produce catalytic works that in turn continue to fuel the feedback loop and lead to innovative possibilities.

assignment 2